Date: 17/02/2009
TI to sample a new multicore OMAP SoCs for smartphones and other mobile devices in mid-09
To support high image resolution and high quality audio, the processor inside smartphone got to be much smarter. Multicore can be a right solution for complex processing. DSP leader Texas Instruments has come out with new multi-core OMAP 4 applications platform for smart phones to handle multimedia-rich user experiences such as 1080p video record and playback, 20 megapixel (MP) imaging and approximately a week of audio play time. This platform is expected to improve processor performance in scale of 10x.
OMAP 4 platform is a system-on-chip solution. The OMAP 4 processor balances processing across four main engines: a programmable multimedia engine based on TI's C64x DSP and power-efficient, multi-format hardware accelerators; general-purpose processing based on the dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore supporting symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) and capable of speeds of more than 1GHz per core; a high-performance programmable graphics engine; and an Image Signal Processor (ISP) for unparalleled video and imaging performance. The OMAP 4 platform also includes a comprehensive software suite, power management technology and other supporting components, providing the foundation necessary to create devices with mobile computing performance at low power.
The first members of this family are OMAP4430 and OMAP4440.
The other features of these products are,
1. 3D user interfaces supporting life-like graphics, intuitive touch screens, large local displays beyond WSXGA and HDMI compatible external displays
2. Low power consuming technology for a longer battery life
3. OMAP 4 platform will support Linux variants such as the Android Mobile Platform and LiMo, as well as Symbian OS and Microsoft Windows Mobile. Additionally, software for the OMAP 4 platform is tested and validated up to the application level.
4. The OMAP 4 platform includes: Pre-integrated support for mobile connectivity, including TI's current and future combo WiLink Wi-Fi solutions, NaviLink GPS solutions, and BlueLink Bluetooth solutions; Pre-validated modem interface software to easily connect the OMAP 4 platform to any external modem; New companion power and audio management solutions (TWL6030 and TWL6040) specifically designed to address the performance needs of the OMAP 4 platform; and Broad portfolio of other hardware solutions optimized for the OMAP 4 platform, including: DLP Pico projection technology, analog components and other complementary technologies.
Availability: Samples in the second half of 2009 and production by the second half of 2010.
Added to above development, Texas Instruments has announced that it has extended its OMAP 3 family with new 45 nanometer (nm) products. The OMAP36x family offers approximately 25% reduction in power and 75% improvement in graphics performance.
TI is also working with the Open Handset Alliance, to further extend the capabilities of Android on OMAP processor.